Conflict-Cola

By

Herbert A. Allen

Updated April 15, 2004 12:01 a.m. ET

I was always sorry that I missed the Salem witch trials. Then, as if by magic, I just got to see a little bit of that old show.

In the original, reasonably stupid people accused reasonably smart and gifted people of being witches and casting spells. Then they burned them. In the replay, an outfit called Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) accused Warren Buffett of conflicts of interest and sought to remove him from the board at Coca-Cola. Up until the geniuses at ISS said it, nobody knew that Warren was really a...